Adding Alabama to schedule makes bowl bid difficult for CSU football team

Rams will have to win 7 of 13 to qualify for postseason play

Dec. 10, 2012

Alabama players celebrates after their 32-28 win in the Southeastern Conference championship NCAA college football game against Georgia on Dec. 1, in Atlanta. CSU will play the Crimson Tide on Sept. 21, 2013. / AP Photo

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Adding a road game at Alabama to its schedule in 2013 reportedly will earn CSU’s football program $1 million, but it will make getting to a bowl game at the end of the season unusually difficult.

The Rams not only will make their schedule significantly more difficult by adding in the Sept. 21 contest against the Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa, Ala., the addition of a 13th game means they’ll have to win seven to qualify for postseason play. While NCAA rules allow teams playing at Hawaii to play a 13th game, they also require a .500 or better win-loss record for postseason eligibility, although waivers have been granted to ensure there are enough eligible teams to play in all the bowl games.

Colorado State University athletic director Jack Graham told boosters at an event Friday night in Chicago about the school’s plans to play Alabama in 2013 and 2015, according to a Twitter message posted that night by the CSU Alumni Association. Graham said Monday he wasn’t prepared to discuss it until all the details are worked out.

“If and until we actually finalize something like that, I think we need to stay away from it,” Graham said.

Jim McElwain, who just completed his first season as CSU’s coach with a 4-8 record, was the offensive coordinator at Alabama from 2008-2011, helping the Crimson Tide win national championships in 2009 and 2011.

The Birmingham (Ala.) News reported over the weekend that Alabama had completed its schedule with the addition of a Sept. 21 home game against CSU, basing its report on the Twitter message. Previous reports were that the Rams would earn a $1 million guarantee for each of the two games at Alabama.

CSU has been told by the Mountain West Conference that it will play league games at Hawaii in 2013, 2015 and 2017, allowing the school to schedule a 13th game for each of those seasons, Graham said last month.

CSU was scheduled to host UTEP on Sept. 21, 2013, but a schedule-related news release issued Saturday by UTEP now shows that game as a Sept. 28 contest in Fort Collins.

CSU is scheduled to open the 2013 season Aug. 31 in Denver against the University of Colorado. Other nonconference games are Sept. 7 at Tulsa and Sept. 14 at home against Cal Poly. It’s not clear what the Rams’ MW schedule will look like with Boise State and San Diego State, two teams CSU was scheduled to host next year, leaving the conference and two others, San Jose State and Utah State, joining. An MW spokesman said he expects the conference schedule to be announced by early March.

CSU’s nonconference schedule for 2015, when the Rams would again visit Alabama, also includes a home game Sept. 12 against Minnesota, the CU game Sept. 19 in Denver and a road game Oct. 3 at Texas-San Antonio.

CSU hasn’t played in a bowl game since 2008, when the Rams went 6-6 in the regular season and beat Fresno State in the New Mexico Bowl in Albuquerque.